Lamphun’s boys had a busy week of cricket in Khon Kaen at the National Youth Championships and did extremely well to reach the final with a young team captained by Cher who was also the opening bowler and most experienced batsman.
The boys lost two of their four qualifying matches but reached the semi-finals on run-rate and gave their best performance of the week in beating Rattanakosin to reach the final where they faced Chanthaburi. This proved to be an extremely exciting match as Chanthabui were bowled out for 82 as Field took five for 10 and wicket-keeper Champ held six catches.
Lamphun didn’t pace their chase very well as Cher was out early, and Formot and Por used up too many dot balls but Champ and Min somehow managed to tie the scores which meant the competition would end in the excitement of a Super Over.
It was all down to captain Cher who would bowl the over for Lamphun and then face first ball when they batted but he couldn’t quite see Lamphun home to victory under intense pressure and Chanthaburi won by the narrowest of margins.
Cher had tried his best and was rewarded with the all-rounder of the tournament award while young Field who has only been playing cricket for six months was the leading wicket-taker with 12 wickets. Champ had shown his skills behind the stumps and coach Chris Dodd was very pleased with the performance of a new look squad.
Lamphun will have the chance to improve further with all the junior league matches they are able to play as well as the boys gaining more experience playing for Lanna Juniors against adult teams. The competition winners Chanthaburi don’t have the chance to play cricket outside the national championships, so Lamphun could go one better in the next competition in March.